CIO: Follow industry's lead

The Defense Logistics Agency is modeling itself after the private sector by relying on commercial products and by boosting efforts to recruit, train and retain information technology professionals, said Carla A. von Bernewitz, the agencys chief information officer.

Government must be willing to change its culture to take advantage of information technology, von Bernewitz said at a recent seminar sponsored by Computer Marketing Associates in Tysons Corner, Va.

The hardest thing about technology is not the technology but the culture within organizations that makes it difficult for them to take advantage of the latest tools available, she said.

Government and the Defense Department are no longer the leaders of the information technology industry, she said.

Its the private sector that spurs technological advances within information technology these days, and so we must be willing and able to change our buying and evaluation patterns to take advantage of this, she said.

There is no reason that I can think of that we should not be taking advantage of those advances, especially since so many of the issues that government faces and the issues that the private sector faces are so similar, she said.

Succinctly put, we are both trying to make sure that we have the kinds of skills and technology that you need for the kind of business that you are in, she said.

There is one critical difference between the struggles of the private sector and the travails of the public sectorretention of information technology professionals, von Bernewitz said.

For us one of the most difficult tasks has been competing with the private sector for personnel, she said. We simply are unable to compete with industry in terms of salaries, and that can make things difficult for us.

That shortcoming can also be a blessing, von Bernewitz said.

We do spend a lot of time on professional development within the government, she said. We send people to schools, to training courses and we have, in my opinion, some of the brightest people in information technology because of that.

But low salaries can be a difficult obstacle to overcome, she said.

Within government there are excellent opportunities to learn and to become an expert in any one of a variety of specialties, she said.